Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge with water-proof body launched, available from March 11

Samsung on Sunday launched the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The two phones look exactly similar to the S6 and the S6 Edge, although the S7 Edge comes with a bigger screen. However, even though the design is same, there are big changes inside. Unlike the S6 and the S6 Edge, the new Galaxy phones are waterproof and come with support for a microSD card of up to 128GB.

The S7 is a phone with a 5.1-inch screen that has a resolution of 2560 X 1440 pixels. Just like other high-end galaxy phones, the new Galaxy devices also have SuperAMOLED panels which are known for showing punchy and vibrant colours. The S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch screen, although the resolution is same. The Edge's screen also has the curve on both the left and right side.

Other than the screen size, the difference between the two Galaxy phones is the battery inside them. The S7 has a 3000 mAh battery while the S7 Edge has a 3600 mAh battery.

Rest of the hardware is same for both phones. The S7 and the S7 Edge are powered by Snapdragon 820 and the Exynos 8890 processors. Depending on the market, Samsung would sell different variants. In India, the company has traditionally offered the Exynos variants of its Galaxy phones and it is expected that this won't change this year.

At its launch event Samsung claimed that the S7 is 30 per cent more powerful than the S6 in general processing. In the graphics processing, the performance is up by over 60 per cent.

Both the S7 and the S7 Edge come with 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. The phones will be available from March 11. For now, the India-specific details of the S7 and the S7 Edge availability are not known but usually Samsung launches its flagship phones in India at the same time when it introduces them globally. Samsung has also said that in select markets people who pre-order the phones will get a free Gear VR bundled with it.

Samsung has also improved the camera in the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge. In comparison photos during the event, the company showed that the S7 and the S7 Edge click better photos than the iPhone 6S Plus in low light. Both phones feature a 12-megapixel camera with bigger pixels, dual-pixel autofocus and optical image stabilisation. The phones have a 5-megapixel front camera.

The new Galaxy phones also come with fingerprint scanner and wireless charging.